Articles - Page 147

The Top 10 AI Tools for Small Business: From Automation to a Coordinated Team of AI Agents

matt-garrepy

<a target="_blank" href="https://www.progress.com/">Progress</a>, the company which recently acquired Telerik, has moved to unite two of its products.The company is combining the award-winning <a target="_blank" href="http://www.sitefinity.com/product/overview">Telerik Sitefinity CMS</a> and the newly available Telerik <a target="_blank" href="http://www.sitefinity.com/digital-experience-cloud">Sitefinity Digital Experience Cloud</a> to create what it calls a, “Digital Marketing Command Center”.The aim is to enable marketing teams to orchestrate a guided customer journey across devices and digital channels.<h2>Increased Insight &amp; Actionable Data</h2>Key benefits of this unification include:<ul><li>The ability to gather omni-channel information: With data connectors pulling information from Telerik Sitefinity CMS, Salesforce.com, Marketo, Microsoft SharePoint and Dynamics or other sources of customer interaction, the customer journey repository in Telerik Sitefinity DEC becomes a single source of truth. Having the full context enables marketers to see interactions between a customer (or potential customer), and all aspects of a company’s sales and marketing functions.</li><li>Increased insight: Telerik Sitefinity DEC uses machine learning to relate how groups of customers and prospects interact through all channels, and provides specific recommendations for how to move them toward their goals more effectively. </li><li>Real-time, actionable data: The solution unveils trends that enable marketers to target their actions and run and adjust campaigns in near real time. Telerik Sitefinity DEC provides predictions toward opportunity improvement, while Telerik Sitefinity CMS enables marketers to personalize and optimize marketing programs, or restructure web properties on the fly, to guide people on a personalized customer journey.</li></ul><h2>Telerik Sitefinity Digital Experience Cloud Now Available</h2>In addition, today marks the general availability of Telerik Sitefinity Digital Experience Cloud (DEC), with features including:<ul><li>Persona management: Profiling and targeting based on visitor activities, even for anonymous visitors</li><li>Integration with third-party data sources: A 360-degree view of customer interactions, both digital and non-digital</li><li>Advanced customer analytics (predictive and prescriptive): The ability to define online and offline conversion goals to measure and adjust strategies on the fly, as well as insights and recommendations for best-next activities</li><li>Automated lead scoring and management: Ranking sales readiness of leads against a common definition of “qualified” via a centrally managed framework, shared across sales and marketing teams</li></ul>Progress' Senior Vice President of Application Platforms, Svetozar Georgiev, made these comments:<blockquote>“To be successful, marketers have to understand the complete customer journey, yet with customer data spread among multiple channels, enterprise marketing leaders struggle to attain visibility into customer journeys that would help predict and guide to future marketing and sales strategies.Without visibility, they cannot shift directions quickly to keep up with demand. Telerik Sitefinity DEC, in conjunction with Telerik Sitefinity CMS, enables marketers to turn on a dime, map and react to the customer journey effectively and, ultimately, provide evidence of the direct relationship between marketing investments and results.”</blockquote>To find out more about this product unification, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.sitefinity.com/">check out the Sitefinity website</a>.

Progress Unites Telerik Sitefinity CMS & Telerik Sitefinity Digital Experience Cloud

mike-johnston

Since 2009, Vanilla Forums, makers of popular open source community has seen their product downloaded over 700k times. Today they have announced a new major open source version available at <a target="_blank" href="http://vanillaforums.org/">http://vanillaforums.org</a>. There has been over 8,639 code commits made by the community and the Vanilla Forums team to make this release a reality.<blockquote>“This release makes it significant easier to customize Vanilla and further blend it into your existing website with tighter integrations and increase engagement with you community” Lincoln Russell, who was the release manager on the 2.1 open source version.</blockquote>Some of the changes in the Vanilla 2.1 product include: <ul><li>New default theme to be easier to customize, with the Smarty template system.</li><li>Improved the HTML structure of the entire siteEasier for plugin developers to hook into common events</li><li>Added new Homepage &amp; Banner options in the Dashboard </li><li>Social media integrations into core, so community members can easy share and login with Twitter, Facebook and more.</li><li>Easier to do translations in more languages by rearchitecting our activity stream</li><li>Redesigned Profiles for easier navigation</li><li>Simplified permissions</li></ul><blockquote>According to Lincoln “There are too many changes to sort into some coherent summary, but users will be pleasantly surprised by what they find when they upgrade or if they are downloading Vanilla for the first time.” </blockquote>Along with the new open source release, more premium features were added to the  cloud version of Vanilla Forums including a recently announced new native Mobile Theme and Advanced EditorFounded in December 2009, Vanilla Forums is a leader in the community platform market, offering both a robust open source product and a software-as-a-service (cloud) offering that helps provide a great community experience to millions of people worldwide.

Vanilla Forums 2.1 Released

Community champions, intranet managers, knowledge owners, communications specialists, heads of people’s happiness. We may not have the same title, but we all have the same goal: keeping people happy and informed, day after day.It’s a tough job, but someone’s gotta do it. And if that someone is you, you’re in luck. You get to take a break to celebrate and bask in your own glory on January 25th 2016.It’s Community Manager Appreciation Day (CMAD), a special occasion to celebrate the ones who work tirelessly writing stories, connecting people, and finding creative ways to share information.<h2>A Day to Brag</h2>It’s a day for us to brag (finally) to the rest of the world about how we’re making a difference – on the people, culture, and even the bottom lines of our organizations. Community managers who are in charge of their corporate intranet sites are on the front lines of business communications – not only making sure information is delivered, but in a relatable and compelling way to employees.Besides, with all the information we receive on a daily basis and our sometimes wavering attention spans, we really only absorb what stands out as interesting or entertaining. And that can be tough to find at work.Igloo Software, a modern intranet company, didn’t want to let January 25th pass without recognizing their most valuable partners in communication.They launched a special CMAD microsite with lots of goodies for community managers, including a manifesto desktop wallpaper, a fortune teller activity, and a blog series featuring customers who manage Igloo communities. Sign up to receive blog articles as they go live, and find out how you can get in touch with Igloo to see if a modern intranet can help you transform your internal communications.To community managers everywhere, keep doing what you do. Even if it’s a lot. At least you have one day a year to sit back, accept a few compliments and gifts, and really feel appreciated.This post is sponsored by Igloo Software, an intranet you’ll actually like. Find more how Igloo Software can help you build a strong community at <a target="_blank" href="http://igloosoftware.com/">IglooSoftware.com</a>.

This Day is For You, Community Managers

When starting a new business, step one is to find out what software you'll need to run your business. Once your business is growing it will be much more difficult to create the technological foundation on which your business will continue to grow. Starting with the right software that suits the needs of your business will get your business intelligence funnel started from day one, instantly providing data you can use to make informed business decisions. Equipped with this data, you can determine what software, campaigns, and content are causing growth and what isn't. This article discusses the technological essentials you'll need to get started.<h3>You'll need software to build, manage, and host your website.</h3>Your website is the most essential part of developing a strong online presence. It is a digital representation of your brand. Keep that in mind when making decisions related to your website. The first step is to find the right <a target="_blank" href="https://www.solodev.com/">web content management system</a> (CMS) for your business. Do you need an informational website with a few web pages? Tools like <a target="_blank" href="https://www.squarespace.com/">SquareSpace</a>, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.wix.com/">Wix</a>, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.weebly.com/">Weebly</a> are likely the best route for you. Do you need a custom web design with more advanced functionality? Tools like <a target="_blank" href="http://www.adobe.com/marketing-cloud/enterprise-content-management.html">Adobe</a>, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.kentico.com/">Kentico</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.solodev.com/">Solodev</a> and <a target="_blank" href="http://www.sitecore.net/en">Sitecore</a> are more suited to you. There's a lot to consider when choosing the right CMS for your business. Take your time, do your research, and don't pull the trigger until you've found the perfect fit.<h3>You'll need a CRM to manage your prospects, leads, and opportunities.</h3>Sales is the cornerstone of business. A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform allows you to streamline your sales pipeline and convert more leads into customers. How does it do this? By giving you a bird's eye view of everyone in your sales cycle from prospects to recently closed opportunities. What CRM system you choose depends on your sales strategy and the size of your sales team. If you have a large sales team, products like <a target="_blank" href="https://www.salesforce.com/">SalesForce</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.sugarcrm.com/">SugarCRM</a> might be for you. If you have a small sales team, free tools like <a target="_blank" href="https://www.zoho.com/crm/">Zoho CRM</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.insightly.com/">Insightly CRM</a> are likely better options. Make sure your CMS can integrate with your CRM before signing on the dotted line.<h3>You'll need software that enables you to sell products online.</h3>Some CMS platforms have built-in E-Commerce functionality while others integrate with third party applications. Check your options and if possible, try and go with the native E-Commerce your CMS provides. If your CMS does not have E-Commerce built into it, you'll have to hunt for E-Commerce solutions unless you already have a favorite. Ideally, pick your favorite tools and find a CMS that integrates with them. For example, if you love <a target="_blank" href="https://magento.com/">Magento</a> ensure your CMS integrates with it. With the right E-Commerce solution integrated with your CMS, you won’t only have a great website but a shopping experience in line with the digital experience your website provides.<h3>You'll need a platform for managing social media content.</h3>There are a lot of options when it comes to platforms to manage your social media accounts and the content you publish to them. Which option is best for you depends on your goals with social media. Do you plan on publishing content on a regular basis to several social media channels? If so, you'll need a platform like <a target="_blank" href="https://hootsuite.com/">Hootsuite</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.spredfast.com/">Spredfast</a>, or <a target="_blank" href="http://sproutsocial.com/">Sprout Social</a>. These tools allow you to schedule the publishing of your content to your social channels. Don't plan on doing much on social media? Creating social media accounts for your business is still a must. The ROI on social is hard to quantify so consider a more aggressive social strategy. Regardless of the size of your organization or your goals, devising and executing a social strategy is essential.<h3>You'll need marketing automation software to put marketing initiatives on autopilot</h3>Sitting at your computer waiting for leads to come in so you can email or call them is not productive. Distribute relevant content when visitors perform specific actions on your website. Marketing automation tools are what make that a reality without human intervention. Tools like <a target="_blank" href="http://www.pardot.com/">Pardot</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.net-results.com">NetResults</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://mailchimp.com/">MailChimp</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.campaignmonitor.com">CampaignMonitor</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.marketo.com/">Marketo</a> are excellent to automate your website marketing and all have public APIs to integrate with your CMS. As mentioned previously, pick a CMS that allows you to choose which products to integrate with, not the other way around. Once your marketing automation tools integrate with your CMS you've synced up both your website and marketing – both of which are now on autopilot.<h3>You'll need tools to track the success of your digital initiatives.</h3>Even with the tools above at your fingertips, they are worthless without analytics. Key analytics can be conversion and bounce rates on your website. They can also show you what content is working the best. Website analytics allow you to make informed decisions based on the data provided. This leads to more conversions, sales, and a better experience for your customers. Tools like <a target="_blank" href="https://www.gooddata.com/">GoodData</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.domo.com/">Domo</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.seoprofiler.com/">SEOProfiler</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://ahrefs.com/">Ahrefs</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://moz.com/">Moz</a> are perfect for this. Without analytics, everything you do is a gamble, as you have no way of knowing what is working and what is not. Your digital footprint is only as valuable as your ability to have a thorough understanding of it and make data-driven decisions accordingly.<h3>Conclusion</h3>Finding the right solution for each of the tools above is vital to your success. Remember that your website is the centerpiece of your online presence. Keep that in mind when selecting vendors for your marketing toolbox. The tools mentioned above all compliment one another. You cannot pick one or two; you're going to need one of each. The biggest decision will be what CMS you choose as that will determine your other choices. Pick a CMS that integrates with the marketing tools most suited to your business. Take your time, do your research, and don't pull the trigger until you've found the perfect fit. Learn more about filling out your online roster today at Solodev.com

The Essentials of Enterprise Software

What in the World Wide Web is Google+ or Google Plus anyway? You’re part of it, aren’t you? The early adopters have their tidy Google circles, a growing membership in others’ circles, and a fuzzy idea of what they're doing. But do they have a clearly defined strategy?More to the point, if we are SEO consultants or professionals, do we know what to tell our clients about Google+? Can we explain the SEO upside to it? Do we really get it?Here’s the question:  Are we winning on Google+?Unless you’re reading this, Matt Cutts or <a target="_blank" href="https://plus.google.com/+BradleyHorowitz/">Bradley Horowitz</a>, I doubt it.If you already know that Google+ is a really big deal, you’re on the right track. This is no mere Facebook competitor — a wannabe that will fizzle out in the fight against the big blue social behemoth. Instead, Google+ is a new way of search, a new form of identity, and a powerful weapon in the SEO arsenal.Basically, Google+ is changing search as we know it, and if you call yourself an SEO expert you need to know how to make hay.<h2>Where We’re Going in this Article</h2>This article is not going to divulge all the deep dark secrets of Google+. Nobody knows all the deep dark secrets. What we do know is simple.Here is the premise:  Google+ is really important for SEO.Because that is true, you must take action. The action steps we outline below will improve your presence and power on Google+. As this happens, your SEO will improve, too. Watch and see.<h3>1. Get on Google+ and fill in all the blanks.</h3>When the world first heard rumblings of Google+, whispers of “Facebook slayer” could be heard. Such prognostications are passé. Horowitz himself <a target="_blank" href="http://allthingsd.com/20110628/google-execs-explain-why-they-launched-google-now-before-its-ready/">stated</a>, “It’s much broader in scope. This is something that will impact Google.” For all its glorious breadth, Google+ is a still a multi-dimensional social platform. Therefore, be present. Just as you curate your LinkedIn resume and post to your Facebook wall, so you must intentionally manage your Google+ profile.Your profile is your SEO. AJ Kohn, a self-described Google+ addict, has bored deep into <a target="_blank" href="http://www.blindfiveyearold.com/google-plus-seo">the search facets and results of Google+</a>. His discoveries reveal this crucial fact:  Everything you put in your profile — where you live, what you do, what you like, what you’re looking for, where you were educated — will register in Google+’s internal search. In other words, your profile is the soil for solid SEO.There’s more to this than internal search, though. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.seomoz.org/blog/tips-to-use-google-for-seo">SEOMoz heralded Google+</a> as an “SEO juggernaut” that will “dominate search results.” That’s not just journalistic hype. That’s solid information. Do a quick Google search for your name or the name of a colleague. What shows up in the right-hand column of your search results? It’s data culled from Google+.Capitalising on the SEO power of Google+ starts with something as simple as filling in all of your personal information, and optimizing that content to match your goals.<h3>2.  Become a Google verified author.</h3>To improve your visibility in search results, you’ll need to have Google authorship. When you gain Google authorship, your picture will appear in search results next to content that you wrote. Having a photo of your smiling face in search results increases CTR by 484%, according to <a target="_blank" href="http://www.marketingtechblog.com/rel-author-ctr/">Douglass Karr</a> (even if you’re not smiling). What’s more, authorship enhances your reputation and personal branding.Getting verified is simple. Simply make sure your photo is on Google+, include your real name in the article’s byline, and confirm your email address. That’s it. You’re good to go.For a quick overview of how to get verified visit <a target="_blank" href="https://plus.google.com/authorship">https://plus.google.com/authorship</a>.Next, you should manually manage your contributions in your Google+ profile. Look for the “contributor to” section in order to edit the pages and URLs of content you created.Verification is simple, yes, but it does take some time. Going through all your content, adding links, and listing your contributions is tedious. However, what you’re doing is dramatically improving your online presence. When viewed through the lens of ROI, what you have is a no-cost method of improving SEO. To reiterate the point made previously, boosting your Google+ input and authorship will also boost your SEO.<h3>3.  Socialise.</h3>Google+ is intensively social. Therefore, socialise. Getting social is the way to build your platform and to appear more often. The more you appear, the bigger your presence will grow. The more presence you have, the better SEO you have achieved.For most readers, online socialising is not new territory.  We know how to share, like, and comment. Google+ is not much different. It is, however, much bigger in terms of the net effect of your sharing, +1ing, and commenting. That net effect is, of course, a positive impact on search. The following tips provide some easy socialising actions that should become part of your daily routine.<ul><li>Add and use the Google +1 button wherever possible. The more you click +1, the more visibility is gained. In one experiment, a company whose page received more than 70 +1s gained a 20% CTR increase. Not a bad SEO boost for a free little button.</li><li>Include relevant users within your circles. Hopefully, they’ll add you back. Being part of someone’s circle will place you in all kinds of visible situations. Obviously, you cannot force your way into circles. You can, however, generously add others to your own.</li><li>Join communities and start communities. Using Google “communities” provides instant access to groups and even more visibility. If you happen to be one of the 41,302 members in the “Joke of the Day” community, you may appear in someone’s community page. Thankfully, there are communities for nearly every imaginable interest — from Call of Duty fans to Plato’s Republic readers. You can create your own or find a niche community, and massively improve your influence and SEO.</li><li>Share other people’s content. Like any social setting, don’t make the conversation all about you. Twitter users have learned this aspect of online social etiquette. It applies to Google+. Be a sharer.</li></ul>The titanic power of Google+ is still being explored. As Google rolls out algorithmic changes in the coming months, the power of Google+ will become more and more apparent.Most of our activity right now consists of building igloos on the iceberg, with little knowledge of what looms beneath. But at least we’re building something. That “something,” as it turns out, is an SEO game changer. The individuals and organizations that scoffed Google+ as a faux Facebook are now scrambling to catch up.Google+ is incredibly important. You may ignore Google+ at your peril. Or, you may engage and win.

How to Really Win on Google+

daniel-threlfall

Engage, experts in the design and development of web and mobile solutions for enterprises, has partnered with Siteimprove to develop and launch a DNN integration plugin for the Siteimprove Intelligence Platform. Siteimprove is a global software-as-a-service (SaaS) company that empowers website editors to continuously test, fix, and optimize their work through actionable content and analytics insights. The plugin integrates Siteimprove insights into the DNN content management system (CMS), Evoq™ Content, and enables web teams to streamline SEO and accessibility compliance processes.Roger Fuhrman, Executive Vice President of Sales for Siteimprove, stated, “Engage is well known and respected within the DNN community and has in-depth knowledge of DNN and its CMS. So, when we decided to develop a plugin for DNN we knew they would make the perfect partner for this project.”The Siteimprove CMS Plugin brings key features and benefits of the platform directly to the CMS, like:<ul><li>Quality Assurance: notifies users on how they can improve website credibility and dependability by identifying errors, such as misspellings and broken links.</li><li>SEO: identifies suggestions to help increase rankings and organic traffic by making analytics insights an integral part of the content creation and editing process.</li><li>Accessibility: alerts users to compliance issues that violate Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0), allowing them to test new content and identify missing headings, images without alt text, and more.</li></ul>The Siteimprove CMS plugin is now available for download in the DNN Store. It is free of charge for Siteimprove subscribers. For more information visit, <a target="_blank" href="http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/siteimprove">http://store.dnnsoftware.com/home/product-details/siteimprove</a>.About Engage Engage is a digital design, development and strategy agency whose experts create custom, high-quality web and mobile solutions for enterprises. Founded in 1999, Engage has a long history of successful development efforts leveraging content management systems (CMS) and Microsoft .NET. Whether designing a website or mobile application, developing and implementing an automated marketing solution or conducting an analytics audit, Engage positions its clients for success. Headquartered and solely staffed in St. Louis, Missouri, Engage is both a DNN Certified Gold Partner and a Microsoft Certified Silver Partner. To learn more, visit engagesoftware.com.

Engage Partners with Siteimprove to develop DNN CMS Plugin

CMS Summit 26

Find out at Open Source CMS 26, October 20-21 in Utrecht, Netherlands

What's ahead for Open Source CMS?

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Dragonchain Inc. is announcing its partnership with Hurify Digital Markets to revolutionize global, decentralized IoT and blockchain development.Dragonchain will provide Hurify with the flexibility and security necessary to build and sustain its dynamic global ecosystem. Using Dragonchain Smart Contracts, Hurify can provide a secure, blockchain-enabled global community of IoT developers to connect and collaborate on projects.“We're looking forward to working with Hurify on our Dragonchain platform,” said Filip Hantson, Vice President of Business Development at Dragonchain. “Like blockchain, IoT is a young technology that has a massive potential to take the market by storm.”The launch of the Hurify blockchain platform represents a first-of-its-kind IoT services marketplace, built on Dragonchain. The team believes that the Hurify blockchain-enabled platform will disrupt existing service models currently blocking the real scalability of IoT.“Dragonchain will enable Hurify to take advanced, multi-level private and public blockchains to the IoT community,” said Mouli Srini, CEO and President of Hurify Digital Markets. “We now have a versatile solution for a range of IoT operational challenges, such as access control, securing data, and scalability; which Dragonchain overcomes with remarkable ease of use for developers.”About DragonchainDragonchain is a technology leader in the blockchain space with operations in four business segments: enterprise services, entertainment, education, and project incubation/acceleration. A US company, Dragonchain’s goal is to empower businesses with an enterprise-grade blockchain solution. Learn more at www.dragonchain.com.About HurifyThe Hurify Digital Markets IoT project development platform uses smart contracts to support the IoT project development and deployment supply chain. By bringing together into one place access to talent, hardware and services, the platform directly addresses the skill gap and project management challenges that create barriers to IoT project implementations for SMEs. Hurify is a global ecosystem for developer communities, entrepreneurs, and IoT solution vendors with members from across the globe. Learn more at https://hurify.co/.

Dragonchain and Hurify Partner to Accelerate IoT and Blockchain Adoption

There's no doubt that data is gold to every enterprise. But analyzing mountains of it to divine actionable insight is becoming more challenging by the day. This is where innovators like <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cmscritic.com/amplitude-announces-new-testing-and-analytics-tools-for-making-smarter-product-decisions-at-scale/">Amplitude</a> – a leading digital analytics platform – are proving essential to unlocking data-driven decisions.Now, Amplitude has announced another breakthrough with the launch of Snowflake-native Amplitude, a Snowflake Native App that utilizes Snowpark Container Services – currently available in a private preview. Snowflake-native Amplitude allows joint customers to access self-serve behavioral insights directly within their Snowflake instance.The news was announced at Snowflake Summit 2023, the cloud data warehouse provider's annual user conference. Amplitude is one of a select group of partners developing Snowflake Native Apps that utilize Snowpark Container Services, and the new capability builds upon Amplitude and Snowflake’s partnership and data-sharing integration. This application marks Amplitude’s first warehouse-native offering. Warehouse-native Amplitude will help more organizations uncover the behavioral insights they need to make better product decisions without leaving their data platform of choice.Amplitude also announced several new capabilities, including AI-assisted data governance and automated instrumentation and reporting, to help teams access clearer insights faster. <h2>Unlocking the power of the enterprise data cloud</h2>Based on IDC data, only 32% of the data within an enterprise is being used. Additionally, with the deprecation of third-party cookies, marketers are looking to their data teams to drive more value from their first-party data stored in their data warehouse. Snowflake-native Amplitude unlocks the ROI of data in the data cloud. Joint customers can now mine additional value from their data by empowering their entire organization with access to self-serve insights from Amplitude — all without leaving their Snowflake instance. Snowflake-native Amplitude also simplifies data governance by using existing Snowflake security and access controls and eliminating the need to store or duplicate data in multiple places.“Today, siloed data makes it difficult for teams to get the insights they need to drive their business forward,” said Justin Bauer, Chief Product Officer at Amplitude. “We want to make it easier for teams to seamlessly and securely integrate customer and product insights with their Snowflake data. Now every Snowflake customer can unlock the benefits of self-service analytics to better understand each step in the customer journey so they can drive active user growth, increase retention, and improve monetization.”<h2>New features including AI and partner integrations</h2>Snowflake announced the launch of Snowpark Container Services to expand the scope of Snowpark. This was designed to help organizations run third-party software and full-stack applications – all within their account. By accessing and running commercial software and apps directly in Snowflake, customers can seamlessly enhance the value of their data using cutting-edge tools without moving or compromising security.“We continue to invest in our expansive partner ecosystem, accelerating how users build in the Data Cloud by reimagining what they can run within Snowflake, without tradeoffs,” said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrischild/">Chris Child</a>, Senior Director of Product Management, Snowflake. “With the launch of Snowpark Container Services, we’re making this a reality. Amplitude’s proven track record of helping teams measure and understand customer behavior to improve customer experiences combined with the ease of use, scalability, and unified governance of the Snowflake Data Cloud will help us deliver more value for our joint customers.”This news comes alongside Amplitude’s announcement of several new capabilities to help technical and non-technical teams gain self-serve access to trusted data and clearer insights. With user experience improvements and automated insights, it’s never been easier to get started with Amplitude. New capabilities and integrations include:<ul><li>Automated instrumentation &amp; reporting: Instantly track user activity and baseline metrics like daily active users, average session length, and geolocation with Amplitude’s enhanced SDK so teams can start reporting on day one.</li><li>Industry-specific reporting templates: Customers can quickly discover product insights tailored to their business with new reporting templates that include industry-specific key metrics.</li><li>AI-assisted data governance: Maintain and continually improve data quality with automation and intelligent suggestions.</li><li>Expanded partner integrations: Quickly and easily send data to other parts of your stack with new and expanded integrations with Braze, Hubspot, Intercom, Marketo, and more.</li></ul>“As the amount of customer data within data platforms continues to grow, self-serve access to insights is a must-have,” said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmwallace/">David Wallace</a>, research director of customer data and analytics at IDC. “Snowflake-native Amplitude will allow teams to quickly and easily access more of their customer data while maintaining the security and governance benefits within their Snowflake instance.”As previously noted, Snowflake-native Amplitude is available in preview, and users can sign up for an Early Access Program.<h2>Q&amp;A with Justin Bauer</h2>Following the announcement, we had a chance to connect further with Justin Bauer, Chief Product Officer at Amplitude, to ask a few questions about the new service.  <hr />CMS Critic: How big of a deal are the AI capabilities mentioned in the announcement? AI-related features are leading most of the news cycle, and we're curious about how strategic the innovation is, and how it might provide a competitive edge for Amplitude.Justin Bauer: Amplitude has been early to the AI/ML Game. We have one of the most unique and comprehensive datasets on product and customer behavior, which allows us to develop powerful models that will impact how companies develop digital products. We already incorporate a number of ML capabilities to help our customers identify issues early, predict behaviors and personalize campaigns.With new advancements in Generative AI, we're looking to help our customers maintain &amp; improve their data quality more easily, generate analysis faster, and even summarize recommendations from their insights. Our new data governance capabilities are just an early example of that. We are also piloting a new feature in beta that uses conversational AI to dramatically shorten the time it takes for Amplitude users to answer questions. They can simply type “How many active users per day?” or “How many users are new versus returning?” into the analysis search bar and generate suggested analyses that help users analyze, explore, and learn.This is still early days, but we think AI has the potential to accelerate growth in the digital analytics category.<hr />CMS Critic: When will the new service be GA?Justin Bauer: Snowflake-native Amplitude will be GA in Q1 2024, but all of Amplitude's other new features are being rolled out this week. <hr />CMS Critic: Is there a cost advantage or economic optimization that might be a selling point?Justin Bauer: Snowflake-native Amplitude has some big cost benefits for organizations because there’s no need for you to export data to Amplitude or build new data pipelines. We run SQL queries directly on the data in an organization's warehouse and provide insights right from their source of truth. Maintaining and managing all of this data directly in Snowflake drives down costs for our joint customers. This process also eliminates the need to move data between systems, so teams can minimize data drift, which is what we call the divergence of two data sets over time. If data drift isn't prevented, it can create big data quality problems down the line. Another benefit is that we're making it easier for teams to manage data access controls, security, privacy, and governance directly in their warehouse. This means they can lift and shift over to Snowflake more easily, while keeping existing security and privacy controls intact.<hr />CMS Critic: Are the integrations one-click or require additional setup?Justin Bauer: We can't claim one-click, but how about 3-5? We do everything we can to make these integrations easy to get set up. And they're all configuration based, meaning you click instead of code to get them up and running.<hr /><h2>About Amplitude</h2>Amplitude is a leading digital analytics platform that helps companies unlock the power of their products. Almost 2,200 customers, including Atlassian, Jersey Mike’s, NBCUniversal, Shopify, and Under Armour, rely on Amplitude to gain self-service visibility into the entire customer journey. Amplitude guides companies every step of the way as they capture data they can trust, uncover clear insights about customer behavior, and take faster action. When teams understand how people are using their products, they can deliver better product experiences that drive growth. Amplitude is the best-in-class analytics solution for product, data, and marketing teams, ranked #1 in multiple categories in G2’s 2023 Summer Report.

Amplitude Announces Snowflake-native Amplitude App: Q&A with Justin Bauer, Chief Product Officer

cms-critic-staff

News travels fast – and in this case, at MACH speed.
Yesterday, the rapidly-growing MACH Alliance <a href="https://machalliance.org/newsroom/aws-joins-mach-alliance" target="_blank">announced the addition of AWS</a> to its roster of Enabler members, joining <a href="https://www.mongodb.com/" target="_blank">MongoDB</a> and <a href="https://www.netlify.com/" target="_blank">Netlify</a> at an exclusive level of visibility. This is a huge point of validation for the movement as the world's largest Cloud infrastructure provider throws its weight behind the foundational principles of MACH.
As the banner in their press release observes, "Great MACH often runs on AWS," and it certainly seems to be the case for many MACH Alliance members tapping services from the Cloud behemoth.
"Since the launch of AWS in 2006, we have espoused the importance of employing a modern architecture for retailers that facilitates rapid change and innovation," said David Dorf, Global Head of Retail Industry Solutions at AWS. "This includes the use of microservices, APIs, and a built-for-the-cloud design. Having been at the very forefront of this movement, we at AWS are proud to join the MACH Alliance to advocate for MACH as an industry standard to deliver the best digital experiences for makers and users."
In December, the MACH Alliance expanded its charter to include the Enabler membership status: a new class of ecosystem partners that are sometimes used by MACH organizations to deliver a service or technology but are not a direct MACH solution provider. To that end, they are "enabling" MACH through their services, which is a key distinction – but also an evolution of the collaborative's fierce governance around certifying members to their cabal.
"Especially in today's volatile commercial environment, businesses must arm themselves to be agile, resilient, and future-proof," said Sonja Keerl, President at MACH Alliance. "Having a flexible, digital backbone plays a critical role in all of those things, as it helps companies adapt to meet ever-changing consumer demands and deliver superior buying experiences. It's a tremendous win to have AWS on board to help champion the MACH principle and its myriad benefits for businesses of all shapes and sizes."
<h2>The monoliths versus the MACHs</h2>
Forrester's <a href="https://www.forrester.com/blogs/buy-an-integrated-platform-not-a-box-of-rocks/" target="_blank">Joe Cicman</a> fired a shot heard 'round the world when he described the <a href="https://machalliance.org/" target="_blank">MACH Alliance</a> as "the bouncers controlling the velvet rope at the entrance of the Coolest Tech in Town Club."
Sounds like a hip place to be, unless you're caught in a dance-off between the Jets and the Sharks... AKA the monoliths and the MACHs.
While the debate over the MACH Alliance's certification policies continues to be vigorous – particularly from monolithic enterprise players that don't fit their stringent criteria – there's no question that it has captured the market's attention, growing to over 40 members. These companies have all met the agile requirements of the not-for-profit's mantra: Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native, and Headless (the "MACH" acronym).
According to their website, A MACH architecture gives companies a deeper level of agility so they can deliver new features to customers faster than ever. While this architectural approach started with <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/commercetools-acquires-frontastic-adds-composable-frontend-capabilities-to-headless-commerce/">commercetools</a> and their omnichannel approach to e-Commerce stores, it is now fundamentally changing the way enterprise software is developed and used across virtually every industry – not just commerce.
The "velvet rope" allusion could not be more apropos when describing the certification of MACH Alliance members. According to a <a href="https://machalliance.org/insights/why-only-companies-can-be-mach-certified-and-not-products" target="_blank">blog post</a> by Sonja Keerl from last October, one of the rules that helps the Alliance board determine certification is that vendors don't carry and promote legacy products along with their modern API-first and Cloud-native SaaS products. This steadfast rule keeps organizations from "MACH washing" their portfolios to achieve a level of readiness – but does not support their organization's mission or focus on the MACH philosophy.
In the same blog post, Keerl said that the MACH Alliance holds itself accountable for providing clarity to buyers, ending confusion, and guaranteeing the "future-proofness" of tech stacks. It's a bold claim, but a powerful one that seems to be resonating across the software landscape.
<h2>The composable revolution cometh</h2>
While the monolith/MACH dance-off continues, <a href="https://www.elasticpath.com/" target="_blank">Elastic Path</a> has responded to the fierce tenants of MACH, suggesting in an opinionated blog post that MACH technologies introduce additional complexity that can be challenging for organizations to manage.
Instead, the company spearheaded its own platform called the <a href="https://www.elasticpath.com/composable-commerce" target="_blank">Composable Commerce Movement</a>, an industry-wide initiative comprised of leading digital commerce technology and solution providers including Algolia, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/what-contentfuls-175m-investment-round-means-for-the-future-of-cms/">Contentful</a>, Amplience, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/bloomreach-acquires-exponea-secures-150m-investment-to-power-e-commerce-saas-expansion/">Bloomreach</a>, PayPal, and others – all with the goal of reducing the risk and complexity of using MACH-based technologies to deliver business outcomes for enterprise brands.
In addition to their industry collective, Elastic Path has also created a <a href="https://www.elasticpath.com/hub" target="_blank">Composable Commerce Hub</a> – an open exchange of composable commerce solutions. This includes a set of pre-composed solutions for B2B, B2C, and omnichannel commerce experiences. The hub also features accelerators for payment plugins, CMS and PIM integrations, and more.
<h2>What does the addition of AWS mean for the MACH Alliance?</h2>
<a href="https://aws.amazon.com/?nc2=h_lg&amp;aws-products-featured.sort-by=item.additionalFields.featuredRank&amp;aws-products-featured.sort-order=asc&amp;aws-products-analytics.sort-by=item.additionalFields.productNameLowercase&amp;aws-products-analytics.sort-order=asc&amp;aws-products-cost-mgmt.sort-by=item.additionalFields.productNameLowercase&amp;aws-products-cost-mgmt.sort-order=asc&amp;aws-products-compute.sort-by=item.additionalFields.productNameLowercase&amp;aws-products-compute.sort-order=asc&amp;aws-products-containers.sort-by=item.additionalFields.productNameLowercase&amp;aws-products-containers.sort-order=asc&amp;aws-products-databases.sort-by=item.additionalFields.productNameLowercase&amp;aws-products-databases.sort-order=asc&amp;aws-products-fe-mobile.sort-by=item.additionalFields.productNameLowercase&amp;aws-products-fe-mobile.sort-order=asc&amp;aws-products-iot.sort-by=item.additionalFields.productNameLowercase&amp;aws-products-iot.sort-order=asc&amp;aws-products-ml.sort-by=item.additionalFields.productNameLowercase&amp;aws-products-ml.sort-order=asc&amp;aws-products-network.sort-by=item.additionalFields.productNameLowercase&amp;aws-products-network.sort-order=asc&amp;aws-products-security.sort-by=item.additionalFields.productNameLowercase&amp;aws-products-security.sort-order=asc&amp;aws-products-storage.sort-by=item.additionalFields.productNameLowercase&amp;aws-products-storage.sort-order=asc" target="_blank">AWS</a> is a goliath. The mere mention of its name brings serious swagger to any brand's position – and this will pay dividends for the MACH Alliance.
While every member in the collective may not be directly tapping AWS services, there are few organizations that aren't leveraging some facet of Amazon's cloud architecture. This underscores the moniker of "enabler" when it comes to their level of commitment. It also drives greater awareness around the role of Cloud-native in the MACH delivery and how AWS supports that vision for vendors and customers.
MACH is serving a critical role in the market, shaping the voice for a free and open future in enterprise technology. Having AWS align with its principles will have a lasting impact on the organization's perception and growth.
The real test ahead: how current members remain true and steadfast to the core requirements – and avoid plunging into a more monolithic posture based on future acquisitions.
<h2>About the MACH Alliance</h2>
The MACH Alliance is a [501(c)(6)] non-profit organization, governed by an independent board and does not endorse specific vendors, members, or otherwise. The Alliance was formed in June 2020 to help enterprise organizations navigate the complex modern technology landscape. It aims to guide and show the business advantage of open tech ecosystems that are Microservices based, API-first, Cloud-native, and Headless. All MACH Alliance members meet certification principles that are published on the website.
The MACH Alliance welcomes technology companies and individual industry experts who share the same vision for the future. Learn more at <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3414374-1&amp;h=965007050&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fcts.businesswire.com%2Fct%2FCT%3Fid%3Dsmartlink%26url%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fmachalliance.org%252F%26esheet%3D52478831%26newsitemid%3D20210818005487%26lan%3Den-US%26anchor%3Dmachalliance.org%26index%3D5%26md5%3Ddb9d7bdff8c8646152c1923d3ff4adc2&amp;a=machalliance.org" target="_blank">machalliance.org</a>, read here about <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3414374-1&amp;h=2369115186&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fcts.businesswire.com%2Fct%2FCT%3Fid%3Dsmartlink%26url%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fmachalliance.org%252Fblogdetail%252Fbltfc0a3afbca44303e%26esheet%3D52478831%26newsitemid%3D20210818005487%26lan%3Den-US%26anchor%3DMACH%2Bcertification%26index%3D6%26md5%3Dba1c5d6e1bf42963a3a8bb59771d09da&amp;a=MACH+certification" target="_blank">MACH certification</a>, and follow us on <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3414374-1&amp;h=2025488620&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fcts.businesswire.com%2Fct%2FCT%3Fid%3Dsmartlink%26url%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.twitter.com%252Fmachalliance%26esheet%3D52478831%26newsitemid%3D20210818005487%26lan%3Den-US%26anchor%3DTwitter%26index%3D7%26md5%3Ddfeea3f8422d14d51b860d90329a6837&amp;a=Twitter" target="_blank">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=3414374-1&amp;h=1575511374&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fcts.businesswire.com%2Fct%2FCT%3Fid%3Dsmartlink%26url%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.linkedin.com%252Fcompany%252Fmachalliance%26esheet%3D52478831%26newsitemid%3D20210818005487%26lan%3Den-US%26anchor%3DLinkedIn%26index%3D8%26md5%3Da1db2958e174d041221c1705e694b6f0&amp;a=LinkedIn" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a>.
<h2>About AWS</h2>
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform, offering over 200 fully-featured services from data centers globally. Millions of customers – including the fastest-growing startups, largest enterprises, and leading government agencies – are using AWS to lower costs, become more agile, and innovate faster.

AWS Joins MACH Alliance as Enabler Member, Reflects Growth of Cloud-Native Solutions

The Mandalorian might have popularized the creed of "This is the Way."
But in the galaxy of composable commerce, it seems there's a new mantra: "This is the Path."
<a href="https://www.elasticpath.com/" target="_blank">Elastic Path</a>, a leader in the explosive category of composable commerce, recently <a href="https://www.elasticpath.com/resources/press-releases/elastic-path-secures-60m-growth-funding" target="_blank">announced</a> a $60 million growth financing round from funds and accounts managed by <a href="https://www.blackrock.com/us/individual" target="_blank">BlackRock.</a> This included participation from existing investors led by <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/sageview-capital/" target="_blank">Sageview Capital</a>.
With this new infusion of capital, Elastic Path is poised to expand its empire. With a total raise of over $120 million, the company appears well-funded and well-positioned to continue leading the market away from traditional, monolithic commerce platforms to more composable solutions.
"As digital moves from a channel to the heart of the enterprise, brands demand more: More speed. More control. More flexibility. And our strong growth is clear evidence that we are meeting that demand with a product that enables brands to manage the complexities of their business." said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamusdriscoll/" target="_blank">Jamus Driscoll</a>, CEO at Elastic Path. "I'd like to thank our new and existing investors for their continued belief in our vision of Composable Commerce, and with this capital, we look forward to accelerating market change, one successful customer at a time."
<h2>What is composable commerce?</h2>
<a href="https://www.elasticpath.com/composable-commerce" target="_blank">Composable commerce</a> is a modern approach by which e-Commerce teams are empowered to select and assemble various best-of-breed solutions from across the digital stack and compose them to meet their exact business requirements. Instead of trying to force-fit standard "out-of-the-box" e-Commerce functionality to fit specific needs, composable commerce leverages <a href="https://machalliance.org/" target="_blank">MACH</a> (Microservices, APIs, Cloud-native, Headless) and <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-jamstack-static-site-generators-for-2021/" target="_blank">JAMstack</a> (JavaScript, APIs, &amp; Markup) architectures to adapt to rapidly changing market dynamics  – now and in the future.
The market is rapidly moving to composable-centric solutions. Gartner predicts that by 2023, organizations that embrace composability will <a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/3986490/composable-commerce-must-be-adopted-for-the-future-of-ap" target="_blank">outpace the competition by 80%</a> in implementing new product features. And according to the <a href="https://www.elasticpath.com/resources/ebooks-white-papers/state-composable-commerce-2021" target="_blank">2021 State of Composable Commerce Report</a>, 95% of e-Commerce practitioners believe composable commerce is the approach businesses should take. 
Elastic Path spearheaded its "Composable Commerce Movement" to make it simpler and faster for brands with complex requirements to deliver unique digital commerce experiences. The company makes this possible by providing a <a href="https://www.elasticpath.com/elastic-path-commerce-cloud" target="_blank">MACH-based commerce platform</a> and what they refer to as "Pre-Composed Solutions" that make it fast and easy to migrate. It also offers <a href="https://www.elasticpath.com/products/composable-commerce-xa" target="_blank">Composable Commerce XA</a>, which provides complete experience assurance for multi-vendor commerce solutions.
Elastic Path has built a clear reputation as a leader in headless e-Commerce. Its composable, API-first commerce platform is specifically targeted towards enterprise-level organizations, but the growth of the pre-composed elements may broaden its target audiences. For all these reasons (and more), Elastic Path was featured on our <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-headless-commerce-platforms/" target="_blank">Top 10 Headless Commerce Platforms</a> list. 
<h2>Banking on future growth</h2>
According to the company, the new investment will enable Elastic Path to build on strong performance in 2021 as the market accelerates its shift to composable commerce. 
Highlights from the past year include:
<ul>
<li>400+% year over year growth</li>
<li>140+ new product releases, including <a href="https://www.elasticpath.com/products/catalog-composer" target="_blank">Catalog Composer™</a>, a groundbreaking advancement for brands with complex catalog and channel requirements</li>
<li>25+ new <a href="https://www.elasticpath.com/blog/what-pre-composed-solution-how-does-it-accelerate-time-market" target="_blank">Pre-Composed Solutions™</a> and Accelerators added to the Composable Commerce Hub™</li>
<li>Introduced <a href="https://www.elasticpath.com/products/composable-commerce-xa" target="_blank">Composable Commerce XA™</a>, the only production-support offering spanning multi-vendor Composable Commerce solutions</li>
<li>Became the first and only <a href="https://www.elasticpath.com/technologies/mach-architecture" target="_blank">MACH-based</a> commerce vendor to achieve <a href="https://www.elasticpath.com/resources/press-releases/elastic-path-commerce-cloud-first-and-only-composable-api-first-headless" target="_blank">SOC 2 for security</a></li>
<li>40+ new partners onboarded</li>
<li>Added new marquee enterprise customers, including Konica Minolta, HarperCollins, Orgill, and DMSI</li>
</ul>
Elastic Path also <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/elastic-path-acquires-moltin/" target="_blank">acquired Moltin</a> in early 2020, a fellow API-first commerce technology platform, helping to solidify its position in the headless commerce market and deploy commerce experiences faster, easier, and at a greater scale.
"We were extremely impressed with Elastic Path's team, the strength of its product offerings, and its impressive growth over the past 12 months," said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnkerwindoyle/" target="_blank">John Doyle,</a> Director at BlackRock. "We are pleased to partner with Elastic Path to support its continued growth into the future."
<h2>MACH... but no MACH Alliance?</h2>
With the growing awareness and interest in MACH technologies, it's impossible to ignore the efforts of the <a href="https://machalliance.org/members" target="_blank">MACH Alliance</a> and its mission to "future-proof" enterprise technology for the future of digital experiences. Started by <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/commercetools-acquires-frontastic-adds-composable-frontend-capabilities-to-headless-commerce/">commercetools</a>, the fledgling organization has already amassed over 40 members in its cabal, all platforms that feature a singular, pure-play focus on the MACH attributes. The MACH Alliance recently expanded its charter to include a class of Enabler members that provide the platforms and technologies that other members utilize. This includes netlify, MongoDB, and most recently <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/aws-joins-mach-alliance-as-enabler-member-reflects-growth-of-cloud-native-solutions/">AWS</a>.
While it offers a fully MACH-enabled solution, Elastic Path has been vocal about its lack of presence in the MACH Alliance. In a blog post, the company revealed why it has chosen not to participate in the highly-visible organization, particularly the MACH Alliance has grown its influence over the last few months. The key reason: Elastic Path's strategy to expand its breadth of offerings and include multiple products such as <a href="https://www.elasticpath.com/commerce" target="_blank">Elastic Path Commerce</a> – which is not microservices-based.
This along is a key blocker for joining the MACH Alliance, but Elastic Path has instead forged its own "path" with the Composable Commerce Movement, adding its <a href="https://www.elasticpath.com/hub" target="_blank">Composable Commerce Hub</a> – a library of partner resources designed to help brands reduce the risk and complexity of using MACH-based technologies and empower them to rapidly deliver business outcomes. To date, its Hub contains composable solutions from vendors such as <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/acquia-upgrades-open-dxp-capabilities-to-expand-composable-enterprise-features/">Acquia</a>, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/andy-jassy-amazons-new-ceo-signals-bold-future-for-loud-and-digital-experiences/">Amazon</a>, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/what-contentfuls-175m-investment-round-means-for-the-future-of-cms/">Contentful</a>, and more.
<div>
<h2>About Elastic Path</h2>
</div>
<div>Elastic Path is the company powering mission-critical digital commerce for the <a href="https://www.elasticpath.com/case-studies" target="_blank">world's leading brands</a>, such as Intuit, Pella, Deckers Brands, T-Mobile, and over 250 other leading brands. As relentless innovators, Elastic Path pioneered the <a href="https://www.elasticpath.com/headless-commerce" target="_blank">Headless Commerce</a> space in 2011 and spearheaded Composable Commerce in 2020. Elastic Path provides industry-leading headless commerce solutions for digitally-driven brands to rapidly build, deploy, and continuously optimize highly differentiated commerce experiences. Elastic Path is a global company with offices in Boston, Newcastle, Reading, Toronto, and Vancouver.</div>

Elastic Path Secures $60M in Funding for Composable Commerce Growth

paris-tuzun

Elastic Path logo against a dark blue background

<div>
Wix just unveiled Artificial Design Intelligence – and it looks pretty darn impressive.
Wix ADI is specifically designed to eliminate the most significant challenges of building websites – time, design and content creation. It's the first-ever Artificially Intelligent web design solution for website builders. 
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YrERmaDZNl0?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Wix Artificial Design Intelligence instantly designs tailored websites by learning about the user through a few simple questions and curating content to create a unique design. From billions of high-quality combinations and possibilities, Wix ADI selects the perfect combination for each users’ need.
</div>
<div>
Wix's Co-Founder and CEO Avishai Abrahami gives us some insight:
<blockquote>
“Wix ADI is the world’s first technology platform that combines website design and content creation with artificial intelligence to enable complete websites to be created in a matter of minutes.
Building a professional and complete website is the first step in getting online, and while Wix today makes it easy, challenges still exist.
With Wix ADI, we solve these challenges, getting businesses online with a fully functioning, stunning looking website easier and faster than ever. Technology innovation is Wix’s core competency, and for nearly a decade, small businesses have relied on Wix not only to build websites but also to manage and grow their businesses online.”
</blockquote>
After the automatically generated website is completed, users have the option of easily customizing themes, editing text, or adding beautiful images, sections and pages.
</div>
<h2>Wix ADI Features:</h2>
Here's a breakdown of the features that Wix Artificial Design Intelligence brings:
•    No two websites are designed the same. Every website is unique and has multiple sections, pages, layouts, themes, color sets, fonts and copy variations. Wix ADI delivers billions of unique combinations in thousands of business categories.
•    Each website is tailored to the business’ category. Wix ADI matches images, text and layout by learning and building based on its knowledge of the users’ business and location. From personal trainers and photographers, to chefs and lawyers, Wix ADI brings custom insight and content to a business’ online presence.
•    Gathers content from across the web. Wix ADI locates relevant content from around the web and social media channels that users can choose to add to their custom design.
•    Users can customize their completed websites. Users can easily customize themes, change layouts and add beautiful images, sections and pages.
•    Stunning results for every website. Wix ADI maximizes aesthetics as it understands context and changes design according to the users’ needs.
•    AI that grows with the user. Wix ADI will create the website for the user or show them how to create optimal designs every step of the way.
<h2>Years of Development</h2>
Nitzan Achsaf, Wix's Head of Wix ADI, also chimed in:
<blockquote>
“Wix ADI is an advancement that has been under development for years, and we know from our deep experience and extensive research that there is considerable demand from individuals, designers and businesses all over the world for exactly this type of solution.
Wix ADI isn't just a new website builder – it sets a new market standard for web design. We have been at the forefront of this market for nearly a decade, and now as one of the leading AI technology providers, we will make website creation accessible and easy for everyone.”
</blockquote>
<h2>The Proof Will Be In the Pudding</h2>
Although Wix has announced ADI, it's going to be gradually rolled out in the coming months. And in my opinion, it' then that we'll see just how useful Wix ADI is.
It the concept amazing? You bet. But my reservation is this:
How well will Wix ADI perform after its first million uses? Will it still be able to churn out unique websites? After all, Wix has over 80 million users, so I'm just hoping that Wix ADI is intelligent enough to create truly unique websites on such a massive scale.
So to conclude, it's too early to come up with a verdict on Wix ADI – but it's not too early to be excited.
To learn more about Wix ADI, check out the Wix press release, or visit the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/go/wix">Wix website</a>.
And as per usual, you can explore more through the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/wix/">Wix hub on our website builder directory</a>.

Wix Launches Wix ADI - Artificial Design Intelligence

Standing in the way of fresh digital products and speed to market are outdated workflow and business processes bound by legacy technology and siloed content.
Companies need to move beyond traditional waterfall models of product development, where each team waits in line to contribute their part. The modern model is agile, as people work in parallel on a cross-functional team that includes anyone who plays a part in the customer lifecycle—each doing his or her part in what can be likened to a “digital factory.”
Customers are now accustomed to a continuous stream of innovative digital products that are tailored for their individual needs. Companies that can meet these expectations are repaid with a highly engaged customer base whose interactions with the aforementioned digital products feed the targeted development of new digital products—not to mention the bottom line.
It’s the best kind of virtuous cycle, but it doesn’t come easily. In fact, for some companies it doesn’t come at all.
The demand chain and digital factories
Digital products — ranging from apps and services to websites, digital signage and customer touchpoints that haven’t even been invented yet — are now core components of businesses, brands, markets and customer value.
Organizations are spinning up new digital products on a continuous basis in response to market demand. Some of these products may be a way to build loyalty with a customer base, expand current market share, take risks and enter new markets or product lines. And it’s not just startups causing this disruption,, incumbents are striking back by building these digital factories as well. Companies that fail to do so risk losing time, money, market share, customers and even staff as talented existing and future employees look for dynamic (and profitable) workplaces using the most current technology.
The digital factory approach enables the kind of agility and flexibility this dynamic model requires. However, for many companies this means a complete re-evaluation of how teams, processes and technologies interact.
Why? For one thing, it’s likely that existing monolithic systems and architectures run counter to the digital factory concept. The goal of digital factories is to unleash teams to spin out digital products quickly. Creating a viable product with plenty of features requires not only a transformation in processes and culture, but supporting technology that compliments developer workflows, speed and agility.
Most monoliths either address a fraction of customer needs by supplying millions of unused and cumbersome features that do not necessarily reflect the goal of organizational agility and velocity, or the monolithic solutions require significant modification and customization. Worse yet, monolithic systems being operated today within the enterprise may not be able to handle the needs of customers even a year down the line – even with massive customization efforts. Right when a customer has completed one endeavour for a particular touchpoint or audience, the next touchpoint or audience is already interacting with their competitor that is already in that next space.
Spinning up a new product or service could take weeks or even months in this model. If something isn’t quite right with the product and it has to be tweaked, the entire cycle begins again, leading to huge deficits in time and expenditure for the company.
Building the digital factory
The cloud brings companies a big step closer to a working digital factory because it enables them to decouple services and continuously deploy software using a stack of primitives. Organizations can pick and choose solutions based on how well they accomplish a specific task, rather than playing catch-up with technology and trying to add feature upon feature to an already bloated offering.
Companies can make the final leap to a larger digital transformation with a digital factory that breaks down silos and connects developers, designers, content creators and other strategic digital contributors.
Some of the major benefits include:
<ul>
<li>A digital factory’s modular, services-oriented architecture enables continuous deployment — not to mention speed and resiliency — by breaking everything into small pieces.</li>
<li>Teams are encouraged to experiment — the digital factory model enables teams to fail fast and inexpensively.</li>
<li>Digital factories mitigate the risk that comes with vendor lock-in and the need for significant customizations, putting companies in a position to change direction quickly and lead emerging markets and channels.</li>
<li>Digital factories increase internal morale, innovation, and the quality and quantity of talent coming inbound to help these organizations in this new world.</li>
</ul>

Why your organization’s ability to compete depends on its ability to reinvent itself as a digital factory

Most managers understand that communicating regularly with team members is important. However, with <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/15/us/remote-workers-work-from-home.html">more and more people working remotely</a>, it can become easy to neglect employees who aren’t in the office every day.
You need to guard against this. Communicating with your workers on an everyday basis is still essential, even if you’re not in the same physical space. Implement the right tools, like a <a href="https://www.15five.com/continuous-performance-management/">continuous performance management system</a>. Doing so will allow you to remain in contact with every member of your team every day, no matter where they work. The following are key reasons you should make daily communication a priority:
Higher Engagement
Engaged employees care about performing at the highest level possible. They believe in the company’s values and want to help the organization as a whole achieve its goals.
Unfortunately, Gallup has found that most of today’s workforce is not actively engaged. However, Gallup surveys also indicate that regular communication between workers and managers boosts engagement levels. Simply providing feedback, direction, and recognition on a daily basis is an easy, but effective, way to keep your team motivated.
Lower Turnover
Losing an employee is extremely costly for a business. Luckily, <a href="https://www.adp.com/boost/articles/2017/07/manager-relationships-with-employees-can-boost-retention.aspx">surveys show</a> that retention rates increase when employees feel they have relationships with their managers. When provided with regular direction and feedback, as well as signs of personal empathy, they’re more likely to stay at a company.
Better Insights
Even though you’re a manager, odds are good there is still room for improvement within your own position. Odds are also good your employees are the ones best equipped to identify where you can make improvements.
Of course, if you don’t have a relationship that involves communication, they’re not likely to offer their own insights without prompting. On the other hand, if you stay in touch on a daily basis, team members will be more comfortable offering suggestions.
Problem Solving
Some team members are reluctant to ask questions or request extra help with a task because they don’t want to appear incompetent. However, if you communicate with them on a daily basis and give them opportunities to ask for support, they’ll be more inclined to take you up on those offers. This makes it easier to identify and solve problems early on, before they have a major impact on a project.
Efficiency
Managers and employees who share an office and work together directly on a daily basis often develop similar mindsets that make it easier to work efficiently.
Teams begin to develop a shared language for discussing tasks, and they learn to anticipate when a manager or other team member will need assistance with a task. This eventually shapes an efficient team that knows how to get tasks done and move to the next step without waiting for immediate instruction.
That’s the kind of team you want. Luckily, you don’t need to sacrifice it simply because your employees don’t work in the same physical office. With the right tools, you can enjoy all the rewards that come from keeping in touch with your workers on a daily basis.

Why Maintaining Daily Contact with Employees Is Essential

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